Yiannis Ioannou, PhD, was honored with the 2017 Mount Sinai Inventor of the Year Award, presented at the SinaInnovations Awards Ceremony on October 16.
Dr. Ioannou’s work in lysosomal storage diseases led to the first ever treatment for Fabry disease, in collaboration with Robert Desnick, MD, PhD, and the discovery of small-molecules that may serve as the basis for novel therapies for the treatment of numerous lysosomal storage diseases, including those with severe neurodegenerative effects. Yiannis’ commitment to seeing these discoveries translated into products that benefit patients and his tireless effort as an inventor-collaborator with Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, culminated in the launch of a new company in partnership with institutional investors in early 2017.
The Mount Sinai Inventor of the Year Award was created to recognize individual or collaborative investigators in the Mount Sinai Health System. The award offers $10,000 to the recipient whose research is making, or has the potential to make, significant positive and product-driven impacts on health. The 2016 recipient was Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Health System.